It is common knowledge that the human brain is lazy (it prefers expending the least amount of energy possible), so it finds different ways to procrastinate. The verb procrastinate is used to describe the neglect of activities, that is, when a specific job does not get its due attention or importance as a result of distraction… or laziness!

Self-control skills allow us to take action against procrastination. Self-control is the “human ability that helps control character impulses. It helps us to calmly and peacefully face problems and normal challenges of everyday life. It encourages us to cultivate patience and intelligently develop established and future interpersonal relationships.” [1]

Triggers: triggering behaviors

Often, all people need to overcome procrastination are a few well-devised triggers. A trigger is an environmental stimulus of any kind that makes us think about a related concept or idea – something that is seen, heard or smelled, which arouses the desire to do something. A bank notification on a smartphone is a trigger for users to access an online account, for example.

Developing positive discipline for your health

Patients who suffer from diabetes are a clear example of problems with procrastination, or lack of self-control. Such individuals must constantly monitor their sugar levels. Because this is a routine task which is often boring, patients forget or ignore the need to perform self-monitoring. They adopt an “I´ll leave it for later” attitude (that´s procrastination!) and end up forgetting. The consequences of this lack of self-control are possible heart disease, blindness, kidney failure, among other diseases, which these patients may end up facing.

Ok, but how can I use gamification to avoid this problem?

Article on self-control gamification for type 1 diabetes patients

The article [1] explains that gamification can have positive effects on self-control through increasing intrinsic motivation and using positive reinforcement to develop healthy habits.

How was the study performed?

Three questions guided the study:

Q1 – What characteristics from studies on videogames and gamified applications in virtual environments are applicable to diabetes management?

Q2 – What is the target behavior for these interventions?

Q3 – What are the main conclusions of the study?

The article presents different research study categories, including games and gamification. In this post, only gamification will be addressed. Three different studies presented gamification techniques. One of these was based on adolescents with type 1 Diabetes and created what is medically called Mhealth (a term used for medical and public health practices supported by mobile devices, such as mobile phones and tablets).

A chart relating articles cited in the research study is found below:

The review article was based on four different databases (PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, PsychINFO) on October 31, 2014. To include terms such as “games,” “gamification,” etc., the research was narrowed down to subtitles, abstracts, titles and keywords and publication dates were limited between the years 2000 and 2014. The research was also limited to English only, but we focus on gamification data only here.

After reviewing principles of gamification used in the three studies, researchers concluded that the children´s learning process on health improved when learning was facilitated by a personalized robot [4], while the use of rewards for motivation showed an increase in blood sugar monitoring [2]. Most of the participants and health professionals attested to the value of the Didget [3] system as an assistant in blood sugar monitoring, and to the fact that the system “solved a problem and fulfilled a need.”

Gamification as an incentive for self-control

We can finally conclude that the case successfully used gamification in favor of self-control, causing patients to adopt the desired habits. See the different roles gamification can play? Now, what are you going to gamify?

The snooker table has become an icon for businesses that aim for collaborator satisfaction, especially within IT businesses. The table is not bad, but it isn´t enough. When I say this, I am talking about the relaxed enviroment it represents. Research on Generation Z professionals (born in the mid-90s) done by Gartner last year in the United States shows that much more than a little pampering is needed to keep them engaged and satisfied – 40% of these professionals said they regretted having accepted their current jobs.

What does this generation, which represents 32%of the worldwide population, really want? And what can organizations do to retain them and get past their lack of engagement and low productivity? The answer might be in Employee Experience, a new concept that is here to transform HR into a provider of custom-designed services for each of the collaborators. Is it impossible? It would be, were it not for technology, which makes it possible to personalize actions in a way that collaborators feel they are the protagonists of their own journeys within the company.

Employee Experience emerged in the United States around 2017. Experts perceived that companies needed to offer positive experiences to collaborators to guarantee the satisfaction of the end client, namely customer success. Garter´s research on Generation Z proves that opportunities for constant career updates and development are some of the main reasons employees stay with a company. For this reason, corporate education platforms are key to inserting Employee Experience in business.

New EdTech platforms, designed according to employee experience guidelines, allow team members the freedom to build their own careers within the company. Consequently, the new model breaks away from standardization and values individuality by bridging the gap between the objectives of companies and employees. Corporate education tools provide collaborators with course recommendations based on personal needs and preferences, for example, and connect them with content available online. Work colleagues may also make suggestions.

As collaborators begin to have more positive experiences, the company benefits from having more motivated professionals who constantly want to learn and stay up to date. A recent report by Brasscom indicates that the IT sector will need 420,000 new professionals in Brazil by 2024. Currently, there already is a surplus of vacant positions. This means that meeting the desires of collaborators will be increasingly more important to retain talent and maintain the team engaged, productive, and satisfied with their journey in the company.